In a plurality of conceivable stations in the field of beverage technology, there is a need for beverage containers to be discharged from a horizontal conveyor and subsequently guided on or delivered to downstream stations. In this respect, in particular in the field of packing technology, installations are known from prior art in which the respective beverage containers are accepted from a horizontal conveyor and then placed into packaging units, such as cardboard boxes, beverage crates, or the like.
In general, prior to being accepted from the horizontal conveyor, the respective beverage containers or bottles are already ordered and standing against each other. For this purpose, the beverage containers can be passed on to the horizontal conveyor via an appropriate inlet, and after having entered the horizontal conveyor, guided in several channels oriented in parallel to each other. If the beverage containers are accepted from the horizontal conveyor, then the respective positions are known. For this reason, possibly existing gripping devices can be lowered over the beverage containers at defined positions, accept the beverage containers, and then drop them into the corresponding packaging units.
Such a device is disclosed for example in the German patent no. 42 04 993. The German patent shows a device for supplying containers to a continuously operating packaging machine. The device comprises a plurality of gripping heads which are hinged at one lever, respectively, while being rotationally driven. In addition, a conveyor belt is disclosed guiding bottles in the direction of the respective gripping heads. Herein the bottles are arranged in rows, stopped at one end of the conveyor belt by a stop, and accepted by one of the gripping heads. Once they have been accepted, the stop is lowered. Further bottles move up, the bottles already accepted being placed into corresponding crates by the gripper head and subsequently removed. Further bottles having moved up in the meantime can be accepted by another gripping head and dropped into another following crate.
In such devices known from prior art, it has been demonstrated that the expected nominal position when accepting the respective containers from the conveyor belt does not always match the real actual position. In particular, this can be the case when the respective containers are embodied, for example, by PET bottles, which tend to be dimensionally unstable. Also, inaccuracies may occur when the respective beverage containers are transferred onto the horizontal conveyor, so that the real actual position is known only approximately.
If deviations from the expected nominal position occur, the respective gripping devices for accepting the respective containers may collide with the containers, with the containers not being accepted by the devices. This may lead to damage to the respective gripping device. Moreover, in order to correct this defect, an interruption of the process may be required, leading to delays in container production and lower throughput.
Therefore, the object of the invention is to provide a method and system by means of which beverage containers guided in parallel rows can be accepted and discharged from a horizontal conveyor with increased precision. In addition, implementation of the method must be easy and simple, and system structure must be simple.